Was pointed this way by Cerigo and have to saw the concept and characters all look really interesting. I'll shoot you a PM after work tonight Rampant to ask about a specific concept that's come to mind to make sure she'll fit in with the game as your seeing it. :)

There are still quite a few key openings I think would make the group even more enjoyable and well rounded:

1) I'm still open to another member of management. Keep in mind this character is going to be a bit older, less killer extraordinaire and more criminal mastermind.

2) Some kind of money person. These guys deal with multi million dollar payments, making this happen without drawing attention is important. Cleaning money for mafia families, hell just providing retirement options to aging contract killers sounds like it could be a lot of fun

3) Speaking of mafia families I think more organized crime members in New York would be AMAZING. So far Nic and Loves have members of the same family and I think they'd be open to more, but rivals would be great. We have all of these people in the city looking for jobs, a crime war would provide a ton of work and drama opportunity., but I really don't want to end up NPCing a whole different family myself.

4) While Cerigo is making a former DA member of Management, but I also think that there's room for more characters like that. Lawyers, cops, politicians what have you who are all on the take in some way or another. If you wanted to go totally radical you could have someone who is genuinely interested in cleaning up the city and cracking down on organized crime, but I fear your crusader would not be long for this world.

It also occurs to me belatedly to talk about restrictions.

We have three characters with STRONG US military backgrounds (former SEALS/marines/rangers) so I'm going to go ahead and put the cap on that for the time being. Other military groups (Sayeret Matkal, Spetsnaz , SAS... damn a lot of them start with s's don't they?) are still welcome, but variety is good :)

Also Swords dearling, bring your guy over, we'll hammer out the details with him working with Cerigo's guy soon, but feel free to put Killian in the approved list and start plotting and all that fun stuff. Thanks for being patient!

There are still quite a few key openings I think would make the group even more enjoyable and well rounded:

1) I'm still open to another member of management. Keep in mind this character is going to be a bit older, less killer extraordinaire and more criminal mastermind.

2) Some kind of money person. These guys deal with multi million dollar payments, making this happen without drawing attention is important. Cleaning money for mafia families, hell just providing retirement options to aging contract killers sounds like it could be a lot of fun

3) Speaking of mafia families I think more organized crime members in New York would be AMAZING. So far Nic and Loves have members of the same family and I think they'd be open to more, but rivals would be great. We have all of these people in the city looking for jobs, a crime war would provide a ton of work and drama opportunity., but I really don't want to end up NPCing a whole different family myself.

4) While Cerigo is making a former DA member of Management, but I also think that there's room for more characters like that. Lawyers, cops, politicians what have you who are all on the take in some way or another. If you wanted to go totally radical you could have someone who is genuinely interested in cleaning up the city and cracking down on organized crime, but I fear your crusader would not be long for this world.

It also occurs to me belatedly to talk about restrictions.

We have three characters with STRONG US military backgrounds (former SEALS/marines/rangers) so I'm going to go ahead and put the cap on that for the time being. Other military groups (Sayeret Matkal, Spetsnaz , SAS... damn a lot of them start with s's don't they?) are still welcome, but variety is good :)

Also Swords dearling, bring your guy over, we'll hammer out the details with him working with Cerigo's guy soon, but feel free to put Killian in the approved list and start plotting and all that fun stuff. Thanks for being patient!

Funny you'd mention this, because I've been pending on making another mafia-related character, from another group. Kind of split between Japanese Yakuza and Hong Kong Triad, but I'll come to some kind of conclusion eventually.

Hmmm, I had been looking at this but was drawing a blank on what to be as some of my preferred ideas seemed to be taken. This gave me a couple ideas, please tell me if any of these would work.

1: A crime mastermind who never gets his own hands dirty, but makes his living by knowing who the best man for any given job is, and hiring them to do it. He is an intelligence gathering fiend who keeps his enemies at bay by gathering dirt on them and making it clear if they touch him, that dirt will go to whoever would hurt them the most. Kind of a Raymond Reddington from Blacklist feel character. Possibly management or head of his own sort of freelance organized crime syndicate, dunno which would fit best.

2: Banker to the den of thieves, this character would apparently be a perfectly legitimate businessman, with a number of businesses which have sufficient cash flow to disguise the laundering of dirty money.

We'd be happy to have you on board Paladin. Personally I feel that you might have more fun with the money manager than the ... facilitator. The problem with having a character like that as a member of management would be that they're in theory supposed to be retired and not actively conducting business on hotel ground (it allows them to at least maintain the illusion of being entirely neutral territory). That's not to say that it couldn't work, he'd just have to be far more selective in his dealing than when he was an active player in their world. Sadly I have never seen Blacklist, though several people have mentioned it to me and I should add it to my list

Regardless of what you decide I look forward to seeing your character!

Well if I didn't go part of management, the first idea could work as head of his own little crime syndicate. Best way to describe Raymond Reddington is that he is "the concierge of crime" serves as the consummate middleman between people who have problems and problem solvers who need someone to work for. So I guess that is more what I was aiming at, was the concept of being the guy who knows both the crime lords and dictators, and the hitmen and cleaners and kidnappers, and serves as intermediary, maybe coming to the hotel as a safe base for him to then go meet these different hitmen in new york and make them offers from other individuals, or even offers furthering his own goals. Kind of a sneaky mastermind, behind the scenes string puller who helps other criminal types get what they want, but does it in a way that helps him get what he wants.

If you think I could make that role work in this, I think that is what I would rather go for. But yes, you should definitely watch the Blacklist. Amazing series.

Oh my thought hadn't been to be exactly like him where he's virtually untouchable. My thought had been the style of character, the facilitator who knows just about everyone, some who hate him, some who love him, some who just need him. I had thought it could make for an interest point for my character to be looking into some of the hired guns and hiring someone to protect him from the people he deals with type thing. But I may think of a different concept, someone else who is just another cog in the wheel. Dunno. Gonna give it some more thought.

honestly don't think the facilitator idea is any more potent than playing a bigwig of one of the mobs though.

The main issue I think would be that the hotel itself is kind of the concierge of crime and the basis of the game is bringing together the best of the criminal underworld and letting them interact with one another in a neutral setting making a character with that focus much less useful than he might otherwise be. Each member of Management is effectively this by themselves as well, although with different focuses, it is in part their connections and history that keeps The Continental the well respected and unassailable institution that it is today.

It still isn't a no, and I think you're right in that having someone in the game who isn't part of the hotel but is in a position to hire some of the very skilled people we have gathered is a good idea (another member of Management is still an option as well). I would ask that you be rather specific with him. "A guy who knows everyone and everything" is pretty meh and I fear would be glossed over and kind of spoiled for choices really. Someone who spent much of the 90's helping the Triad expand into western markets by bypassing import/export issues and brokering truces with already existing crime families in the area, has helped facilitate land deals in New York for the Russians, and has a reputation for being knowledgeable and discrete in all of his workings? Much more doable. You have a few specific skills and ties with the understanding that when it comes down to it your character at least knows somebody who knows somebody who can get the job done, but someone who probably has made his share of enemies in the past as well and doesn't fall under the protection of the Conteniental (not yet at least ... as the title of the game implies your current members of Management might find they're not quite as protected as they once thought). No one in the game is unassailable and that's the fun part really :)

'The Diplomat': An English independent contractor who made a name for himself in his youth as a competent hitman. From there he segued into forming his own small crime organization with a unique calling. Crime families fight with each other, that is the nature of the business, and no one cares as long as it stays quiet. But when it starts to spread into the news, and bothering politicians, that brings heat down on everyone. The Diplomat's specialty is going into these crime wars, and making a simple offer. Both of you come meet and hash this out, or me and my organization join the other side, and we don't stop until all of your assets are gone. As a result much of his organizations job is ensuring different crime families abide by the terms of their clandestine agreements, and often serves as a middle man between the differing crime families.

Would give him a shitload of enemies, and instead of being a facilitator he is head of his own small organization of independent contractors, and he is very specialized instead of being far flung. But still keeps the flavor of middle man I was aiming at. Workable, or should I keep thinking? lol

should clarify, concept is he'd be hired by other crime families who felt the two squabbling families were bringing heat down on them.

Name: Valerie XeranovaTitle/Status: Independent ContractorAge: 31Height: 5"6Weight: 125Hair: BrownEyes: GreenPhysical Description: Model = Amber HeardHistory:A girl born to rather average parents, she worked hard in school out a desire to not just be a cookie cutter girl from the suburbs. All of her young life, she could see how homogenized her environment was becoming. Everyone seemed to be different shades of the same person. Valerie could not live like that so she did her best to stand out. She did not go the route of being a cheerleader or some sort of athlete. Instead she joined in a lot of the more physical and usually male activities like the karate club, the kendo club an d so on. All the while she continued to be a star student on her way to being valedictorian. In a competitive tournament for karate, she broke her leg. She took her injury hard, blaming herself for it. For a long time she even chose not to go to school because she felt like she was now a failure.

Teenage depression set in as she felt like she would not be able to do anything that she envisioned for herself. So once she was out of crutches, she walked along a bridge planning on throwing herself off of it. When she was about to climb over the rails, she was pulled back by a man. Valerie attacked him not wanting to fail at taking her own life like she failed at everything else. The man took her down with his hands gripping her neck asking her if she truly wanted to die. Valerie told him about how she felt like she failed herself. And that to die would at least save herself from further failure. This man who held her life in his hands offered her a proposition. Since she failed herself in no uncertain terms then it was time for her to live for someone else. She would live for him and if she ever felt that she truly failed at that then he would gladly kill her.

Johnathon Rhodes was the name of that man. And she began to live for him. Once more she engaged in school getting her grades back up. She fought even harder in her karate club, kendo club and then she even picked up kick boxing and wrestling. Johnathon instructed her that she was not to be just strong in mind but also in body. Her attention spread her in several different directions yet she still did decently at the clubs and sports she was in. It allowed her to really fight for herself. After high school, she was told to go to college. She went and got herself a degree in Physics.

On her graduation day, Johnathon gave her a choice. She could throw all the progress she had made and die by his hands. Or she could choose to live and put all she had done to good use. She chose to live and began working with Rhodes as his partner. Many of the contracts they did together were from the Agency. Rhodes did not seem to be one to stray from killing what he perceived to be as bad guys. A morality he passed onto his protege. However after a particularly dirty mission in New York, Rhodes went missing.

So Valerie based herself out of New York doing jobs for the Agency and others to see if she could gleam some sort of information about where her mentor had gone or if someone had a hand in his disappearance.

Personality/Motivations: Valerie is a girl who enjoys results, she loves to see a plan come together. She hates failure and due to her background plans extensively to succeed or adapt in order to win. She puts a lot of effort into her jobs. However it has left her somewhat cold and distant to other people. Only one person got to see her more softer side. And that one person is gone leaving her somewhat depressed but also focused to find out why.Likes (non sexual): Sun, Exercise, Sweet drinks, Success, Cleanliness, Loud beat filled music, dancing Dislikes (non-sexual): Quiet, Failure, Rain, Laziness, Sexual Preference: PansexualTurn Ons : Rough sex, being bound, sex games, biting (both ways), scratching (both ways), knife play (both ways), breath play (both ways)Turn Offs: bathroom stuff, needle play, blood play

RP Thoughts/Plans: Valerie wants to find Rhodes. She is nearly desperate to do so. What I think could happen is that she will work with a number of fellow contractors to see if they know anything about the disappearance. Also GMs are free to use Rhodes in several capacities such as leaving clues or ominous messages about what happened to him. I figure this is what can be used to draw her into the main plot.

As discussed a Mike Rowe playby as her mentor will be coming in as an NPC at some point :)

And not that there's a cap on female characters, but we are pretty unbalanced at the moment standing at like a 15 to 7. Cerigo is still waffling about making characters (both a hitman and possibly a former DA member of Management type) but after badgering him about it for months I'm throwing in the towel there .. someone else please feel free to take my place